Retirement Planning

Completing your retirement paperwork may only take a few hours, but the decisions behind it deserve much more time. A little preparation before you file can help you avoid mistakes that are difficult, and sometimes impossible, to correct later. Here are five…

For many federal employees, retirement becomes the focus years before it actually happens. They count down the months until they reach their Minimum Retirement Age, hit 20 or 30 years of service, or qualify for an immediate pension. Reaching that milestone is…

Many federal employees think about retirement one benefit at a time. They know they'll receive a FERS pension. They have a balance in the Thrift Savings Plan. They have an estimate of their future Social Security benefit. What often doesn't happen until…

After months of steady growth, the federal retirement backlog finally moved in the right direction in March. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) received 14,759 new retirement claims, including 8,830 digital and 5,929 paper submissions. That is a sharp drop from February’s…

Most federal employees focus on how much they’ve saved for retirement. Far fewer consider how market performance unfolds after they begin withdrawals, and that distinction can have a lasting impact. Sequence of returns risk is the danger that poor market performance early…

Retirement planning advice is everywhere. Save 10 to 15 times your salary. Budget $300,000 or more for healthcare. Maximize your retirement contributions every year. For private-sector workers, that guidance is reasonable. For federal employees under FERS or CSRS, it can send you…